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THE NAME OF JESUS
God’s mandate to bring evangelism and healing to people by the Name of Jesus becomes our mission. Rev Matthew Tan, JHM Ministries (Jesus Heal Me) shares his understanding from his ministry experience.
Last year was a dramatic year for my ministry.
I recall at the height of the COVID-19 wave in India and Indonesia, hundreds of people would come on Zoom, almost every one of them gasped for air and were dying from the COVID-19 infection. My scripted messages suddenly became useless, I couldn’t connect with people. I realized that nobody wanted to hear me preach about healing when they were close to death. They just wanted to be prayed for.
Due to the record number of deaths in these countries, I started to change the message I was preaching. I thought that the best thing I could do was to preach the salvation message simply and clearly, without room for misinterpretation. At least people could hear the gospel before they passed on. That was what I did. The sense of urgency drove me.
When I did that, the most amazing things started to happen. I began receiving many reports of people getting healed from deathbed conditions. People who joined us online were lying on their beds and gasping for air. However, after hearing me preach the gospel, their oxygen levels started to rise — from 70% to 99% in 30 minutes! Some even tested PCR-negative the next day. Others told me that all members of their household started to recover at the same time, their symptoms went away the next day.
When I take God’s mandate as my mission, power flows.
This taught me two big lessons. (1) I needed to bring my ministry to where the need was. (2) God did not want me to be just a ‘healing minister’. The Lord wanted me to be an evangelist. When I take God’s mandate as my mission, power flows.
The Name of Jesus: Power to Heal
The power to heal is found solely in the name of Jesus.
In Mark 16:17, Jesus said, ”These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons…” The ministry of healing is not just reserved for the pastor or ‘gifted’ persons, it is for all Christians.
While the ministry of healing is for everyone, the ‘gifts of healing’ (1 Corinthians 12:9) is not for everyone. There will be some people who are gifted, and healing happens more often for them. However, the lowest denominator for everyone else is not zero. If we want to see more healing, we just need to pray for more people. Simple math.
In Mark 16:18, Jesus tells us to lay our hands on the sick and they will be healed. This is not complicated at all. The idea is for us to just pray simply, commanding the pain and illness to leave in Jesus’ name.
The Name of Jesus: Power to Save
Healing is for now, the present. We need Jesus to heal us. Salvation is for the future, when we pass on. We need Jesus to save us. Jesus is both Healer and Savior.
Acts 4:12 states it plainly that, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
The Bible says we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all destined to die once and then face judgement. Lazarus received the biggest healing ever. He was raised from the dead! Yet, he is no more living today. This means that no matter how big the healing we receive; we will all eventually have to die one day.
As we pray for healing, we should take the chance to tell people about the Healer..
Interestingly, I find that the healing ministry is more effective (i.e. the odds are better) when I start to talk about Jesus having the power to save. Something in the spiritual realm unlocks when we do what God wants to do and it seems that God wants to make Jesus known.
Healing is a signboard that points people to Jesus. If Jesus can take away our pain, Jesus can take away our sin.
Here are three tips to help you get started.
Tip 1: Tell yourself: “What if healing happens?” “What if they get saved?”
Most times, the moment we start doing something for Jesus the ‘worst case’ scenarios start to play in our minds. Like for example when praying for the sick, the lingering thought will be — “What if healing doesn’t happen.” In fact, the bolder we want to be, the louder that thought will be. So how do we shut it off?
Instead of thinking “What if healing does not happen?” Turn that thought around and tell yourself “What if healing happens?”, “What if they get saved?”
The former thought pattern focuses very much on self. “If healing doesn’t happen, I will be embarrassed.” The later thought pattern shifts that focus from self to God. “What if healing happens? God gets the glory!” And do not worry. Jesus will take care of his own reputation.
Tip 2: Tell yourself: “You are already dead in Christ.”
Let me share with you a conversation that I had with one of my volunteers.
One day, I asked him, “Why do you have such guts to go around to pray for people on the streets?”
He told me, “Because I’m already dead in Christ, so saving my face no longer matters.”
Tip 3: Tell yourself: “They don’t lose anything if they don’t get healed”
Even if they didn’t get healed, they didn’t lose anything. You didn’t collect money. No harm for them to try this free option to get healed. So, if there is no immediate healing, you can thank them for their time and continue to point them to Jesus.
Rev Matthew Tan has an evangelistic ministry that is often accompanied by divine healing. He started JHM Ministries (Jesus Heal Me) to be a blessing to the wider body of Christ. In addition to ministering at gospel crusades and evangelistic services around Asia, his passion is to raise up ordinary church members to exercise their authority in Christ for the purposes of power evangelism. He is currently a Director with ACTS College overseeing the School of Supernatural Ministries.